Friday, November 09, 2007

Sleeping Birds Lie

One of the students in my 6th period comes to class everyday with a very noticeable red mark on his forehead from sleeping through his 5th period. I've ask him about it before and he explained that his 5th period class is boring and the teacher doesn't seem to mind if he takes a nap when his work is done.

Personally, I've always found napping difficult. On the rare occasion that I do take a nap, it usually lasts for two hours or more and is followed by another hour of debilitating grogginess. Knowing these things about myself, I never successfully fell asleep even once throughout my entire academic career.

Since sleep wasn't really a viable way for me to pass a boring school day. My stratagem was to force myself to pay attention in class so that I could pass the tests without ever doing any of the assigned reading. It worked like a charm. But it also robbed me of seminal high school experience, being jolted awake by an angry teacher dropping a heavy text book on the desk that you are using as a pillow.

Now, as a substitute, I find myself wielding the heavy textbook and the authority to drop it inches from the head of a sleeping student. But just as I know that I will never be a napper, I also know I will never be a textbook dropper.

Why on earth would I want wake a sleeping student? When a kid is asleep the odds of them screaming or punching another student slips blissfully close to zero.